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News & Features
From the Idyllwild Town Crier weekly newspaper, 07.17.08 edition.
Abatement contractor in action?
By J.P. Crumrine, Assistant Editor
Editor’s note:
Linda Lee of El Cajon and Cedar Glen, called the Town Crier frustrated
and angry at the treatment she was receiving from both the Idyllwild
Fire Protection District (IFPD) and its contractor, Fire Prevention
Services Inc. (FPS).
Early the week of June 16, Linda Lee of El
Cajon received an official-looking letter from IFPD. She and Dale Lee,
her husband, own a home in Cedar Glen; so she anxiously opened it.
Inside was a Notice to Abate Hazard. “What does this mean?” she asked
herself and Dale. Their Cedar Glen property had passed inspections
every year.
But the notice said differently. Now they had 14 days to clean the
property to the standards established by IFPD Ordinance 2007-001.
This ordinance appears to incorporate the defensible space requirements
from the Public Resource Code — 30- and 100-foot zones around
structures, the closer zone being a more intensive fire
protection barrier. The purpose is to protect the home from fires in
the forest and to keep structure fires from spreading into the forest.
To build an effective defensible space around a structure, one is
likely to have to remove some trees, dead or dying, or even potential
ladder fuels. This capability is beyond the FPS’ abilities, as the
company acknowledged to the public last week. (See page 20.)
The Lees’ notice specifically references section K, which requires the
distance between crowns of brush or chaparral to be equal to the widest
adjacent plant. And all dead limbs and twigs should be removed.
The Lees could appeal the notice at a cost of $25. They could drive to
Idyllwild and abate the property. Or they could contact FPS, the
company with an exclusive contract with IFPD to accomplish
comprehensive “vegetation and rubbish management,” including fire
spread, public nuisance and blight abatement.
FPS is mentioned five times in the half-page notice, including the
heading at the top of the page; the Lees contacted FPS and asked for an
estimate to abate their property, which required tree work, something
FPS is legally not allowed to do. The estimate was $1,400 for their
half-acre lot property.
“We both thought that was an exorbitant amount,” Linda said. “So we
went up to Idyllwild on June 21 or 22. We spent the full day cutting
and limbing trees — all scrub oak and manzanita.”
By the time they completed abating their property, the Lees had taken
eight trips to the transfer station in a pick-up truck full to the
cabin with a tarp covering. The Lees deemed their effort “fabulous.”
Apparently, the president of the Cedar Glen Property Owners agreed
since he singled it out as a great job at the group’s July meeting.
So imagine the couple’s feelings when they received the Final Notice to
Abate Hazard last week.
“It feels to me that Fire Prevention is all about getting money from us
and they’re still trying to get it,” Linda opined. What particularly
irked them is that FPS had sent photographs to guide them through the
abatement effort, and they had followed them.
The Lees were perplexed. What else did they need to abate? What was a
danger on the property? As a last resort, Linda called IFPD for help
and intervention.
“I just got off the phone with IFPD,” she said Thursday afternoon.
“They want $49 for a second inspection. It’s not fair. If I don’t pay,
FPS will assess a $350 administrative charge against us.”
Full of frustration because they felt they had fully complied with the
abatement notice, the Lees, living far to the south were feeling
helpless. Before finishing the conversation with IFPD, Linda, who had
read the July 3 article about FPS and IFPD, said she would call the
Town Crier.
After the Town Crier finished a 10-minute conversation with Linda at
about 2:30 p.m., this reporter left to photograph (with her permission)
the Lee property. The drive took about five minutes and the
photographing was completed about 3:15 p.m.
During this time, Linda had called the paper a second time at 3 p.m.
and left a voice mail saying IFPD had withdrawn the abatement notice at
no cost to them, she said.
“As soon as I got off the phone with IFPD, I called you,” Linda said in
her voice mail. “She [the IFPD agent] said Fire Prevention was on the
property and everything looked good.”
The only person on the Lee property between 2:40 and 3:15 p.m. was this
reporter. Furthermore, the Lees did no abatement of their property
between June 22 and July 10. During that period, the property both
failed a third inspection and passed.
IFPD President Glen McWilliams says FPS was given a contract because
they would do all the paperwork if it were necessary to go to court and
force an abatement, whose costs would be recovered from a tax lien.
“There’s no way IFPD has the time and staff to take these people to
court,” he said. But he emphasized that IFPD does do the property
inspections, not FPS. Yet, FPS had photographs of the alleged
violations on the Lee property.
Despite the dismissal of the final notice, the Lees were aghast at the
process.
“It’s the biggest scam and felt like extortion — pay them or pay the
district. They were in it together it seemed,” she opined. IFPD’s
withdrawal of the final notice did not leave a good feeling with the
couple.
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